1. Are small gifts appropriate for my staff?

I was promoted just a few months ago over people I have worked with for a few years. They are a great team of four people and I wanted to ask about gift giving etiquette. I want to do small gifts, such as $10 gift cards. Is this appropriate for the amount of time I have been supervising them? Or is it so small that it looks insulting?

Money is somewhat tight this year for our family, and I think it would be a stretch to do any more than this. Office culture in the past has been around double to triple this dollar amount coming from our boss.

Answer

Nope, that’s totally appropriate. Most people aren’t looking for expensive gifts from their managers, and something small is absolutely fine. (So is doing something like bringing in food for the group and telling everyone how much you appreciated their work this year.)

When people want large gifts, they usually want them in the form of a bonus from the company (not from you personally), and that’s only if the company culture (or history, or explicit statements) has led them to expect/hope for one.

2. How can I get employees to stop saving all their vacation time for December?

I am an office manager for a small company (under 10 employees). Every year it seems we run into the same problem – everyone wants to use their vacation time in December (we have a “use it or lose it” vacation policy).

The line of work that we are in requires that we bill clients hourly. It has already been a tight year, and it will be tough to make payroll if half or more of the company is leaving us without billable hours. How do we avoid this situation without upsetting employees?

Answer

Let people know in advance: “We often need all hands on deck in December, which means that we can’t promise vacation time will be approved that month. While we’ll make every attempt to do so, the reality is that we might not be able to approve more than a couple of days off per person that month. People are strongly encouraged to use all or most of their vacation time before December for that reason.”

And for this year, assuming you didn’t warn people in advance this time around, if you can’t approve all of the requested time-off in December, make a one-time exception to your “use it or lose it” policy and let them roll it over to next year (or until March, or whatever seems reasonable).

Alison Green writes about workplace and management issues for The Business Journals. She writes the "Ask a Manager" website, dispensing advice on career, job search, and management issues. Previously she was the chief of staff for a national nonprofit lobbying organization, where she was responsible for day-to-day management. She lives in Washington, D.C.